Bad News! - Aspire BDC Review

How's everyone doing? I'm glad to be at ECF, I'm starting up a new vaping review series on Youtube entitled Good News Vaping Reviews, and I'll be reviewing everything from Clearomizers to Juices to Batteries - my goal is to truly call out the goods and the bads in the vaping industry, taking no outside influences or being persuaded to give fluffed up reviews in exchange for freebies, and to make sure that those new to vaping know exactly what to get and what to stay away from. No butts about it! (Cigarette pun.)

As my first major review, I'll be talking about the big hit, the Aspire Bottom-Coil Clearomizer, specifically the Vivi Nova version:

Right away, reviews from others state that this device is extraordinary at wicking, packs a punch with the dual 1.8ohm coils, brings in more flavor than almost any Clearomizer on the market, and produces a room full of vapor. Which of these statements are true and false according to Good News!?

1. As a flavor connoisseur, my first and foremost factor is the taste test. I will say up front that I am not a nicotine guy, and I don't value much of a throat hit (most of my juices run from 0mg - 12mg), and when it comes to any device, experiencing an enjoyable, true-to-manufacturer's intent flavor is what keeps me away from cigarettes the most. How does the Aspire hold up? In this category, it's Bad News.

Let me explain:

When my Aspire came in the mail, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas. I was outside checking my mailbox every 15 minutes. I come inside, load my tank up with the well-wicking rum-based juice that has given me a snag of luck in other devices, and I let my Aspire sit for exactly 15 minutes, doing a few primer puffs about every 5 minutes. After this process, I go to vape it. Right away, I notice that I'm getting a very yeasty taste from my device. I think to myself "Ok, maybe it's just a new wick." and I continue to vape. Several minutes later, with no improvement, I slap my trusty air-controller onto the set-up, and I think "maybe the wicks just aren't getting enough juice." Minutes later = no improvement.

I figure "Ok, maybe this juice just isn't the right one for this Clearomizer, no biggie." I take out a new head, and I clean my tank with distilled water, I let it air dry (with a little help from the "cool" setting on my blow dryer...), and I pour in a delicious Cafe Cocoa that, in a good set-up, tastes just like a cup of the very stuff. I do the waiting and puffing method once again, and I go to vape. However, absolutely no matter what I do, and I try a gazillion things, from voltage settings to air adjustments to inhalation styles to virtually cutting off the air supply. Absolutely nothing I did would stop this delicious juice from tasting like a burnt popcorn kernel. So far, the tank as a whole seems to funk up flavors quite extraordinarily.

2. While my biggest priority isn't the amount of plumes I'm getting from my vape, I do like a big, nice, throat full of vapor as much as the next guy. Does the Aspire deliver its promise on this note? In this category, it's Good News. While I haven't tested the device at extremely high voltages for taste reasons, even at the lowest of settings such as 3.3 and 3.8, the device will have you exhaling vapor, and then exhaling a second wave of vapor because so much is in you. Now, this isn't sub-ohm vaping, and it's not in my opinion what would be a dream-come-true amount, but is it at least double what a single-coil clearomizer can do? Yes.

3. Now as everyone knows, wicking is what keeps our devices going. Without good wicking, you get burnt tastes and a dry vape. How does the assertion hold up that the Aspire wicks like a charm? In this category, I'd classify it as an Unsolved Mystery.

While the Aspire heads do seem to wick well enough to avoid getting a flavor profile that is purely a burnt, choking, charred mix, I do seem to get the flavor that suggests the top-most coil in the head may be getting quite a bit less juice than it deserves (and by all means of physics, the location of the holes don't exactly allow much juice to get to it - a better design would have been one hole for the top wick and another for the bottom). The flavor of my Aspire heads seems to be a mix between the juice's original flavor, and a dry-ish, yeasty give. An imagination would also liken this flavor to warm toilet paper or a funky cartomizer. A generally great amount of vapor points to the fact that it is at least wicking somewhat well. Experiencing an actual dry hit every now and then too, even with tight air control, seems to dispel the hype.

4. The fourth question is: Does this device leak? On my juice tests so far, absolutely not - not one tiny bit of condensation either! Now, I have not gotten below half a tank (again, the device just has a bad taste with multiple heads), but as a general good hold-up to leaking above half-tank, it gets a Personals. Too many other users have reported gurgling and leaking below mid-tank for this to get a Good News.

5. The question that must be asked is - how well does this device connect to batteries? The main issue, beyond a few other reports of bad tastes, is the center pin getting pushed up. I have taken this thing on and off my eGo style batteries many times so far, and not one problem. I'd believe this is an issue more common on mods. Because so many people have this issue, the feedback must be reported regardless, and with this, it gets a Personals. You do have to take in others' accounts with any product.

6. The final question is - is this a warm or cool vape? In this category, I would call it Celebrity News. Like a celebrity, the hit of this device is quite bi-polar. With a high-nic juice, this device, like any dual coil, seems to send out searingly painful puffs of vapor that I wouldn't believe even the most veteran of smokers or vapers could stand. I simply couldn't vape my Watermelon juice in it, which is high nic - that being said, this particular juice has only been digestible at very high resistances. However, with my tests so far, 0mg - 12mg seems to give no sense of burning or dryness at all, and seems to be a very mid-temperature vape. For those who enjoy high nicotine, you may not have experienced what this amount of nicotine truly feels like until you try this device.

Overall, on my video review, I will be putting this product in the Bad News category, and moving on... unless anyone can give me any tips that may help me change my experience. I've used juices from Halo and the like in my tank, and with brands like this, I shouldn't think there would be any problems, but it seems I'm very wrong. Please post your experiences and let me know what combinations work for you, and what flavors you're getting from this device!

Its performing really well for me, but it gurgles once the e-liquid gets to about 1/3rd level. I've got it bumped up to as high as 4.5 volts and the vape is really nice, but that gurgling is a deal breaker. Seems like there is a lot of inconsistency with the production.

Well, I could personally see how this device could possibly deliver a genuinely good vape with a flavor that matches the faults - Boba's Bounty, which is what PB used, seems to be reviewed as a grahm cracker vape, and with the Aspire's yeasty taste, the icky nuance may not be noticed. But so far, with fruits, rums, and virtually anything else in my stock, it simply tastes either burnt or downright yeasty.

Many have reported burnt flavors, and many have reported that the flavor is odd for the first 15 hits, but my review is simply not getting better so far, and I'm still trying to see if the wicks will just hurry up and break in. I wanted this one to be News Of The Century.

At this point in vaping though, I've learned that some people are sensitive to the taste of certain materials, some aren't. I may be one of those people. It doesn't really explain the charred taste of my Cafe Cocoa by Halo though - a very decent juice, horrible in the Aspire. I also still have 3 heads left - I'm saving those until some juice samples from Velvet Cloud Vapors come in. %100 VG with Distilled Water and All-Organic Ingredients. If that isn't a test, I don't know what will be.

Oh, one more thing, I used an air-controller just like PB, no luck. There's only so much you can cut off before it gurgles, and cutting the air off too much actually caused juice to come up into my mouth without the warning of a gurgling noise.

My main thing is flavor - if my juice has a funky aftertaste or I can't taste it, I go straight to the cigs. Do the iClears really hold up in that regard?

I just tried a 4th head with the Aspire, and it burnt up in about 3 minutes. I'm using a very thin juice, and cutting off any of the air supply causes juice to pop up in my mouth (yet strangely, no leaks or gurgling, this tank just seems to be designed in a way where liquid just seems to magically come up and out). This thing doesn't seem to wick well at all. I'd describe it as a tank where if you let it sit for 15 minutes, the head will hold more juice than normal for like a 3-puff chain, but it doesn't hold up well at all when it comes to vaping fairly steadily, especially when testing.